What's In A Word?

January 29, 2006

Guess what the most-looked-up word was in 2005.

According to the folks at Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, it was "integrity," defined as firm adherence to a code, and incorruptibility (also, in our hard copy of Webster's New World, as "the state of being of sound principle").

However accurately this reflects the interests of Americans more broadly, it could hardly be more appropriate.

There's an understandable tendency these days to fear that integrity has all but vanished in America. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his allies, various corporate chieftains and too many public officials to name come to mind.

But it's in the nature of things that such sore thumbs tend to stand out in a society in which most people, we like to think, live their lives in ways that justify the belief that, on the whole, we are a decent, law-abiding and principled people. Not that we couldn't use an occasional refresher course on righteous living.

"Integrity" was followed on Merriam-Webster's top 10 list by "refugee," "contempt," "filibuster," "insipid," "tsunami," "pandemic," "conclave," "levee" and "inept." In light of events last year, most of those seem logical. One thing the list suggests is that many people pay attention to the news. (Inept, for example, brings to mind: "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie!")

But we agree with the Christian Science Monitor, quoting the director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University: "I'm not sure whether I'm heartened or depressed" that "integrity" finished atop the list. "It's sobering," he said, "that they need to look up integrity in the first place."